Consolidated Edison Inc. last week disclosed that it has approved plans for its Con Edison Development (CED) subsidiary to add capacity totaling more than 600 MW at power generating facilities in New Jersey and Massachusetts. The plant expansions will take place at facilities owned by CED in Lakewood, NJ, and West Springfield, MA.

At the Lakewood facility, of which CED owns 80%, the company plans to add more than 500 MW of new generation supplied from three natural gas-fired turbines scheduled to be in service in late 2002. This additional generation will be added to the facility’s existing 234 MW of capacity. At the West Springfield facility, which is 100%-owned by CED, the company intends to add around 100 MW of new generation supplied from two natural gas-fired turbines scheduled to be in service prior to next summer. The generation capacity will be added to the plant’s existing 125 MW of capacity.

“With these two projects, in addition to the other holdings in our portfolio, we will soon have more than $1 billion worth of generating assets in important power market areas of the country,” said Stephen B. Bram, chairman of both CED and Con Edison Energy (CEE). CED’s investment activities are undertaken in coordination with CEE, which is also a wholly-owned subsidiary of CEE. “We are very pleased with the progress of CED and CEE, and with our current development projects, we expect continued growth in our net income, which was more than $23 million for the two companies in 2000,” Bram added.

CED, in partnership with Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, is about to begin construction of a 1,020 MW peaking power generating facility near Rock Springs, MD. CED is also constructing a 525 MW dual-fueled, combined-cycle power plant in Newington, NH, which is expected to be in service for the summer of 2002. CED develops and acquires power projects, with a focus on the deregulating power markets in the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S.

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